In the railroad industry, railroad tracks may be damaged for a variety of reasons, to include wear, weather damage to the tracks (such as washed out sections from weather events), or from vandalism, to name a few. Damage to components related to the railroad industry can occur as well. For instance, road-crossing lights and bell systems, safety control systems for controlling operation of trains operating on the tracks, and railroad ties themselves can be damaged from use, abrasive wear, deterioration, and the like.
In addition to repairing track or other related components, new construction may also occur, such as laying new track or modifying existing track to include new features (such as new safety or warning features).
Thus, there are numerous possible reasons why construction or repair may be occurring along railroad tracks. Often, however, the location for conducting such work is remote and not easily accessible by car or truck. As such, aside from using the tracks themselves, there may not be a convenient or cost-efficient way to bring tools and repair parts to and from the work site where the construction or repair is to occur.
Accordingly, over the years the railroad industry has developed handcars that may be manually operated or pushed to the work site. In the early days of the railroad, typically a large team of railroad workers was available, which could be moved to the site via manually operated carts. One early version of a work cart includes a handcar in which an input shaft was manually operated in a ‘see-saw’ fashion type, causing power to transfer from an input shaft to a drive wheel via a linkage. Such a design included sufficient space for two or more people to provide power to the input shaft, and included sufficient space on a platform to carry passengers and equipment. Thus, a team of workers and their equipment could be readily and inexpensively conveyed to a work site if no other means of transport were available.
Over the years, with improved repair and construction tooling, and with increased cost of labor, the size of handcars for construction and repair of railroads decreased in size. Typically, a team of laborers placed a handcart on the tracks, loaded the handcart with tooling, and manually pushed the handcart to the work site. In some instances, it may be necessary to allow for passage of a train, thus the cart may need to be removed from the tracks at the job site during a construction or repair job.
With continued efficiencies and increases in the cost of labor, work crews have continued to diminish in size and todays work crew typically includes perhaps one worker and one helper. As such, todays handcart is sufficiently small that it can be loaded and pushed to the job site by just one or two workers. Typically, the handcarts of today may weigh in excess of 100 pounds (45 kg), while having limited capacity of perhaps 1000 pounds (450 kg). Such handcarts can be awkward to transport from a truck to the tracks, and may even require two or more workers to safely or properly transport the handcart to the tracks. Once positioned on the tracks, the one or two workers may load the handcart with tools and manually push the handcart along the tracks to the job site. Further, over time the amount of equipment necessary at the work site has tended to increase, as construction and repair equipment has gotten more sophisticated. Thus, as work crews have generally reduced in size to perhaps one or two workers, the amount of equipment at the site has increased in some regards.
However, 100 pounds may be excessive for one or even two workers to safely transport from the truck to the tracks. Thus, it is impractical to simply use larger and heavier handcarts to convey such equipment. In fact, some workers may be limited for health or medical reasons to carrying only a certain amount of weight to avoid overexertion and injury from occurring. In addition, safety standards such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) may limit the amount of material that may be carried by one worker. Thus, if the number of workers to carry the handcart is insufficient, the worker may be inconvenienced or even prevented from being able to carry out the required construction or repair task.
In addition, existing handcarts may include a flat or planar surface on which tools and equipment are placed during conveyance of the handcart. However, due to the motion and vibration that can occur during movement of the handcart on railroad tracks, the tools and equipment are prone to rolling and falling off of the platform.
Further, handcarts typically include wheels that include flanges that maintain the wheels, and therefore the cart, on the rails. However, due to dynamic motion of the handcart, shifting loads on the handcart, and the like, handcarts have a propensity to derail during use.
As such, there is a need to conveniently reduce the amount of mass of a handcart in the railroad construction industry while increasing the capacity of the handcart. There is also a need to improve the ability for the handcart to convey tools and equipment without parts rolling or vibrating off of the cart, and without the cart derailing during use.